A known wooden pallet has a rectangular top deck, composed of wooden planks, and comprises a series of parallel deck planks which are attached to one another in such a way that the top side of these planks forms a relatively flat loading surface for the goods. This top deck is supported by a wooden frame which forms a sufficiently strong base and forms a stable support for the top deck at a certain height above the ground. To this end, said frame consists of a number of wooden blocks which are attached to the bottom side of the top deck and a number of bottom slats which are attached to the bottom side of these blocks and connect in each case two or more blocks with each other so that they form a bottom support surface.
Due to this construction, a space which is accessible via openings in the lateral sides of the frame is created underneath the top deck of a pallet. Said openings are delimited at the top by the top deck and are delimited laterally by said blocks. Via these openings, the lifting forks of a pallet truck or a forklift truck can be introduced into the space underneath the top deck from a side of the frame. By then moving these lifting forks upwards, the pallet can be lifted and subsequently readily be moved by displacing the lifting device.
The opening(s) provided on a lateral side of the pallet underneath the top deck via which the lifting forks of a lifting device can be moved underneath the top deck, are furthermore referred to in this patent application by the term ‘lifting opening(s)’.
It is often found that the known pallets are damaged and that they are, in addition, damaged in such a way that they are unusable and difficult to repair. A relatively common cause of such damage is incorrect positioning of the forklift truck at the point in time when the lifting forks are moved upwards, as a result of which a bottom slat of the pallet is held back by the wheels or another part of the forklift truck while the lifting forks exert a lifting force on the top deck thereof. This is usually not noticed immediately by the operator of the forklift truck, and therefore the continuing upward movement of the lifting forks greatly damages the pallet. Sometimes, the goods stacked on the pallet are also damaged as a result thereof.
The pallets are placed in warehouses by means of forklift trucks. In this case, pallets are placed next to one another in rows with a very small clearance, so that the front side of these pallets is in each case a side which is provided with lifting openings for the forklift truck. For certain warehouse configurations, it is desirable to be able to accommodate more pallets per row, thus resulting in a desire for pallets having a smaller width than the existing pallets. However, the sides which are provided with lifting openings have to have a certain minimum length so that the dimensions and the position of the openings correspond to the standard position and the standard dimensions of the lifting forks of a lifting device.